One of the signature features of my layout is the sawmill near Cass, which I started in 2016. However, this scene has never been completed. There were several key features missing. Without them, the scene looked a little silly as there was no way to unload the logs from the trains into the pond, get the logs from the pond into the mill, and get the sawn timber out of the mill to the drying and sorting yard.
Finally, the I go the motivation to complete the scene and now Dean's Lumber and Millwork Company has a Jill poke to unload logs, a log chute with chain winch to haul logs into the mill, an extended deck out the other end of the mill, to support the tail end of the dead rollers and a car loading platform for loading finished lumber onto trains.
The interior of the sawmill is detailed with 3D printed model purchased from
DonVA's Shapeways shop, Fine Scale Models. Don has done a superb job with his sawmill interior models and it was a pleasure to add it to my mill. Unfortunately, the logs in my pond (made before I had the interior kit) are a bit longer than Don's log carriage. Normally, the team in the woods would buck the logs to the appropriate length. However, I was not going redo my millpond scene, so I scratch built a large circular bucking saw to buck the logs in two on the log deck before logs reach the main double saw breaks them down into slabs. I'm not sure this is prototypical, though I did see at least one photo of a large circular bucking saw in use but, that may have been from a later time period. Nevertheless, the bucking saw adds a little bit of believability that the mill can handle the longer logs sitting in the pond.
I also redid the overhead lights in the mill so that viewers looking at the side of the building had a better view of the interior.
I'll add some bark chips around the Jill poke and other details in due course. But for now, I think I can now saw the scene is largely complete.
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| The Jill poke for unloading logs. The end of the boom is set against the side of the log. As the locomotive pulls the train through the poke, the boom pivots, pushing the log out and off the car. |
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| The extended deck to the sorting and drying yard. The loading platform in the background is also new. The mill boiler has a flickering red LED to simulate the fire. |
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| A view from the millpond into the mill. The new bucking saw can be seen under the lights. |
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| Looking into the side of the mill, one can see its a hive of activity. |
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| With the roof off, one can see all the details from Don's 3D printed sawmill models more clearly. |
